Notes from SEMICON West – Day 2

When one wakes up in San Francisco one may believe when looking out the window that the day is lost to bad weather. The view and sunrise is often obscured by a heavy fog that blankets at least the western half of the city. If you base your mood on that fact you may start out on a sour note. However, if one gets to hear keynote speeches by two semiconductor industry leaders, then perhaps the day will look a little brighter.

Here at SEMICON West the day started out with Tetsuro Higashi, the CEO of Tokyo Electronics (TEL) providing a compelling presentation on the progress of the semiconductor industry and its impact on our world. Higashi also projected into the future and predicted Artificial Intelligence (AI) will move society forward towards the singularity by 2027. For more on that idea you will have to Google this concept of “singularity” Interesting concept if you are into that type of thinking and clearly he has thought about it.

Equally interesting was our “very own” Tom Caulfield, Senior Vice President of the Facility in Saratoga County presentation called “Accelerating Innovation: Intelligent is the New Smart.” It never fails to stun my senses when I hear the statistics related to technology. On one slide Caulfield presented data on what “happens in an internet minute”. Here are some of the amazing statistics: 1,389 Uber rides happen, 347,222 new tweets, 51,000 new apps are downloaded, and 150 million emails are sent. All in one minute! But here is the one statistic that is amazing: in 2016 there were 6.4 billion internet connected devices…by 2020 there will be 24 billion internet connected devices. What does this mean for all of us that want economic growth in Saratoga County?

I believe it means that we can expect growth not only in the industry but at home in Saratoga County. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is poised for tremendous growth and prosperity, and if we work together through public-private partnerships, a factor Caulfield believes was a key to GLOBALFOUNDRIES success was and so eloquently described in his presentation, we will succeed as a community.

The Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership team is on point in executing this effort. We are in the lead and we are excited to be here to meet with potential companies that could make new investments in our community. With over a dozen meetings scheduled we are singing the virtues of investing in Saratoga County.

Our intent is to bring back the prize. We’ll check in tomorrow with more.